Container Garden 2011

[woodsman86]

Finally got a chance to upload some pictures of my first finished, but not filled, container garden. Hopefully I will get around to the rest of the planting this weekend.

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[crashdive123]

Looking good. Your peppers have blossoms, so it won't be long. With peppers I found that you have to be careful with your cover. When they are young, if they rub up against your plastic cover it will damage the stalks and kill the plants. Took me a bit to figure it out.

[woodsman86]

Thanks Crash. I cut the cover kind of wide because I learned that lesson with my tomatoes. Wind blew pretty good one day and I ended up replanting two plants.

[Winnie]

Looks good. You can't beat fresh home grown produce.

[woodsman86]

A little update of where I am at...

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Chili Peppers are doing well, about a dozen growing already.

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Lost a bunch of beans to the wind, got the seeds in just waiting on the new plants.

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Tomatoes are coming around. I had to abandon the hanging idea, so some Crash influenced platforms/frames are in the works.

[crashdive123]

Looking good.

[PipeStone]

@Woodsman86- Can you tell me about your containers? I am guessing that the pvc sticking up is a water intake?? What type of soil is used? What do you do about pest and diseases? Do you foilar feed? My plants are doing much better since I started spraying them with kelp a couple times a month. I am needing a new tank can anyone tell me if they have ever ordered anything from spaysmarter?

[Trabitha]

Thank you, Pipestone! I was going to ask the same question. I've seen a lot of you plant your container gardens like that and it would be SO COOL if someone could tell me where to find all the proper supplies and what each piece is for. Thanks in advance!

[PipeStone]

My best trick is to make your own potting soil with a mixture off sand and rabbit manure. 50/50. I buy a lot from Worms Way.

[crashdive123]

Here is the tutorial that woodsman86 did on his containers. http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...ntainer-Garden

[crashdive123]

Here are the instructions that I used to make mine. http://www.josho.com/gardening.htm

[Trabitha]

Thank you! I thought there would be no WAY I could have a successful garden if I had to rent! Now I have something to look forward to for next years growing season!

[woodsman86]

My soil was a mixture of top soil/compost/peat moss. I haven't dealt with disease yet, but insects have attacked a few plants. I can't remember the name of it but I bought some food safe insect spray to help keep them at bay.

[Alaskan Survivalist]

I love this stuff! I am doing more container gardening as I'm getting older. I'm not good enough at it to give any advice about it but I appreciate those that do post on this topic. I trully believe this will be more useful to more people for survival than other options just because it is available to any one with a window or patio.

[tuxdad]

I'm trying my hand at container gardening this year as well.. I have a couple of questions... Are you mainly(other then rainfall) watering your crop through the pipe ?? Is the plastic important when doing these, or should I not worry about it ??

Thanks

[crashdive123]

I'm trying my hand at container gardening this year as well.. I have a couple of questions... Are you mainly(other then rainfall) watering your crop through the pipe ?? Is the plastic important when doing these, or should I not worry about it ??

Thanks

Not meaning to speak for Woodsman86, but yes to both. These types of containers are watered through the pipe, and yes the plastic is important (for a couple of reasons) It keeps other seeds from planting themselves and it keeps the planter from turning to mud in a heavy rainfall. In hot climates use a white or light colored cover and in colder climates use a black cover (helps to keep the soil warm).

[tuxdad]

Thanks Crash !!

How often do you water, or does it vary?? I've been monitoring the levels(1 - 1.75 gals) for the past 3 days with no change.. I'll be putting some plastic or some type of weedblocker fabric over top today...

I'm using some 35lb litter containers, and some 5gal buckets for my set up...

Tux

[crashdive123]

This year I'm using the homemade earth boxes again (similar to the ones in this thread) and 5 gallon buckets. I water every day now that the plants are mature. Here's the set up I have http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...-Year-s-Garden Last year I built an irrigation system for the containers that was on a timer. The earth boxes were fed with 1/4" tubing and the 5 gallon buckets were watered with micro sprinkler heads. This year everything is by hand.

All of my tomato plants are in buckets and not the bottom fed containers this year. In the past, when I had two tomato plants in a bottom fed container, the mature plants would take one to two gallons of water a day.

[tuxdad]

I'm trying this out with my beans this year.. I went about using some wicking material up through the bottom ... I used some cotton filler cord for this.. Hopefully this will do the trick... If not, it'll be apart of the learning curve...lol

Thanks again !!

[woodsman86]

I water everything through the pipe, except when I first get sprouts I water extra because I live in El Paso and the top of the soil dries quick no matter what. For my wick I just used soil with some extra peat in it. Seems to be doing well, though my pole beans have dropped off terribly I think because of the heat. The bush beans are producing well though. Good luck with it, I know I have been pretty happy with it all and learned a few things this year to make next year better.